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The song that I selected for this week’s challenge is Wedding Song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I have a hard time letting myself truly let go in love somtimes. I’ve never really been able to relate with incredibly romantic songs even when I was in love because they so often sound corny and superficial to me. I’ve always preferred an edgier song to something soft and delicate, but I have found the perfect love song that is both of these things. You know that feeling you get when you hear a song for the first time and you know you’ve fallen in love because it is perfect? Every note, every sound just fits.

Two months out of a two year relationship and as much as I didn’t want it to, this song made me fall in love with love again. As happy as I was to be searching for my independence again, and working toward standing tall and focusing on me, this song struck me. The excruciating beauty that she sings with swept me off my feet and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the story she was telling. That probably sounds corny and maybe that’s okay…But give the song a listen before you decide for yourself.

Karen O is basically an alien in the most complimentary way possible. She writes lyrics that are out of this world and for someone with such an unclassical voice she makes every sound sheer perfection. Her words are ones I would never think to use to talk about love, but the way they fall one after another you see and feel exactly what she is talking about. I have never heard music that let me feel more in love than when I first heard this song. It was a love that I haven’t known yet and a world I have not yet lived in but I understood it and most importantly I felt it.

Every word that she sings makes it the least cliche and the most intelligently poetic love song I’ve ever heard. Hearing it sets my mind free as I run through every relationship that I’ve had. Those photographic memories that you hang on to even after it has been and gone. You always hang on to those few precious moments that told you it was real and it was worthy. Every moment of love and inseparable devotion. Even in their beauty, those loves could never have stood up against this love that she sings about.

Such a simple love yet so perfect.

“Some kind of violent bliss led me to love like this. 1000 deaths my dear, I’d die without you here.”

Each lyric so artistically crafted to express exactly the love that she knows she has found. It is such a painfully beautiful description of her devotion and appreciation for this love. This song oozes inspiration for me. It reignites a fire in me to open myself up and really fall.

It’s easy to forget what you’re doing. I find myself going on autopilot. Every once in a while I will wake up and realize what is in front of me. I just went through midterms and it’s that feeling of having no time while also running out of time. I had forgotten that feeling already which is surprising. It’s scary and overwhelming and makes me want to do nothing but sleep. Now things have calmed down though and I almost feel antsy. It’s uncomfortable. I suppose that if you get used to running it can be hard to walk again afterwards. I realized today that the stress of midterms pulled me away from what I’m doing here. Slowly I’ve felt myself pushing forward. Trying to wake up to find myself further down the line, but I was excited to go back to school for a while there. I knew that I would feel like this at some point-burnt out and over it. University consumes your life like nothing else, you constantly feel like you have work to do and just look forward to the day you can relax only to feel guilty for wasting a day…It’s exhausting.

Today I realized how much of my time that is spent technically doing schoolwork that really doesn’t feel like schoolwork though. I realized I was lucky. And more importantly, that I was happy. There was a reason that I took a break from school but there was also a reason why I chose to do this. While it’s not traveling, it is a process that sure teaches you things about yourself. I am a very determined person I’ve learned. I can lose focus every once in a while, go on auto pilot but I’m working towards something and I will achieve it. Tomorrow will come and the next chapter will be exciting but I will have accomplished something that I will always have. There are always two sides to the coin. It’s important to appreciate the side you’re on. It won’t always be there.

We at the Lester & Charlie Institute of Forward Thinking like to fancy ourselves as being up-to-date on important things. We know how to search Google News, and we get regular Facebook updates from things like LOLCats and George Takei. We’re pretty sure we’re not missing anything important. So it was kinda startling to stumble across the revelation that one of our favorite child stars from long ago is all grown up and torturing Somali pirates.

Really! We all know that some child stars grow up to become drug addicts or media whores, but it turns out that formerMouseketeer Britney Spears is doing something different: Combating evil on the ocean by using her unique talents to make sounds that can drive pirates insane.

We should have seen this coming. We were vaguely aware that Britney’s been making these sounds for some time now, but we hadn’t realized their true…

They have done it again. I didn’t doubt it but it just feels like it needs saying. Arcade Fire have made a fun album that is so them yet at the same time something completely different. Lovey and dancy but yet not quite romantic dance music. It is an album that you will put on to listen to and just completely fall into. You may not even realize it but all of a sudden you are in the rhythm of the song and you realize how good it is. While each song sounds infinitely different than the last, you seem to almost loose your train of thought as you follow it with the sense that you’re being told a story. Such a truly Arcade Fire thing to do. The Suburbs did the same thing to me. The more I listened to it the more I realized what the story was and how every one song contributed by being stand alone tracks that fit the puzzle so well.

This year’s album feels like a friend you haven’t seen for a while but as soon as you see each other again you remember exactly why you’re friends. Changed a little maybe, but everything you’ve come to love is still there. The artistic quirkyness that is so Arcade Fire is there and present, but somehow you add trippy futuristic sounds, and bongo drums and they still make it work. The dancyness of the album is exactly what I had hoped for. Arcade Fire are so great at writing these epic anthems but underlying them is this catchy beat and this album has amped that up a bit. I think that this album tells the story as more of a journey. They reel you in to dance and move and feel with them. How can you not dance to ‘Here Comes the Night Time?’ It’s infectious. I just cannot wait to see them. I’ve waited a long time, and this is the year.